Australian-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto says goodbye to its richest source of diamond: Argyle Mine, located in the remote east of the Australian Kimberley region, where production will stop next year.
The mine, which has been operating since 1983, has dropped rough diamonds with a total weight of more than 800 million carats, according to Rio Tinto. Measured by annual production, it is the largest diamond mine in the world.
Although only a small proportion of the diamonds produced is suitable for the production of gemstones at around five percent, the mine enjoys a special status in the sector because of the Australian „mining crown jewels“ promoted there („Neue Zürcher Zeitung“ note). after all, about 90 percent of the pink diamonds available on the market come from the Argyle mine.
Plus 500 percent in 20 years
Only on Friday, the latest collection of rare gems was presented to the public. It may be one of the last, as reported by the newspaper „The Sydney Morning Herald“ with regard to the cessation of production announced by Rio Tinto’s diamond mining chief Arnaud Soirat. According to the newspaper, this also means record prices for the auctions scheduled for fall in Perth, Hong Kong and New York.
Does it go after the diamond dealer Leibish & Co. In any case, Argyle recognized „the potential of these stones at an early stage and invested a lot of work in the marketing of these pink diamonds“. It was obviously a model of success: According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Soirat said the price had risen in the double digits every year – and that over the past 20 years, it had increased by 500 percent.
Worldwide declining production
However, the Rio Tinto Group, which initially operates the Argyle Mine in a joint venture with two other mining companies and since 2000 alone, put years ago, the upcoming end of the Argyle promotion in the room. The background for this is falling incidents and thus no longer economically viable promotion. According to the finance portal Bloomberg, a mine was closed in 2015 in Zimbabwe and another in India in 2016. In addition, in 2025 there will also be the news from a diamond mine in Canada.
The industry is changing, as evidenced by the portal Miningscout. According to this, more and more large mines are currently „slowly reaching their exhaustion limits“. This also applies to the Jubilee Mine operated by the Russian Alrosa Group, and it also appears that in South Africa „a large part of the mines are already exploited“.
